I'm really enjoying this magical detective series, so much so I've already read the next two books in this series but more on that next week. If you like Butcher's Dresden Files than this one is for you. |
Battling Boy by Paul Pope is simply amazing. I've read through it multiple times now and I pick up new bits in the story and art every time. The book was written for 12 year old boys but it works on many levels and is definitely an all ages hit. For long time comic book fans you will pick up on the homage to Jack Kirby and his work on titles like Thor and the entire New Gods line. In Battling Boy we have a young god being sent on walk about basically. He needs to grow up and his father sets him a challenge to clean up a world of the monsters that threaten it. During he first challenge we see how new Battling Boy is to his powers and how naive he is. This is a good story about growing up and I can't wait for volume two to be released. |
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Book's I've Read This Week
Friday, October 18, 2013
Books I've Read This Week
Apparently, there is a bit of a controversy surrounding the truthiness of Gladwell's book. Regardless, he's an excellent story teller and this is an entertaining read. |
Friday, October 11, 2013
Books I've Read This Week
That's why I was so intrigued to get and read Confessions of a Public Speaker. I rather enjoyed Mr. Berkun's insights into public speaking. I was also very glad to find out that most people are more afraid of public speaking than death. Actually, that doesn't make much sense but it is a good anecdote. The book is filled with some great stories and a lot of practical advice. The one piece of advice I'm immediately putting into play is to interrupt those folks who ask rambling 5 minute long questions after your talk. I guess the audience is just as disappointed to have to listen to the ramblings of a mad man as I am. However, you can do it politely. Just offer to take the persons super involved query off line and follow up with your email address so they can contact you. There is also some good bits on "what can go wrong" during a talk. It's great to be prepared for problems. For instance, when I walk into a venue to do a talk I usually have my presentation in 3 separate locations, my laptop, a usb stick and Dropbox. So god forbid anything happens to one of them I have a redundant back up ready to go. You might think that sounds a bit excessive but let me refer you back to my PhoneGap Day US talk. My laptop would mirror it's display with the projector so the audience would only be able to see the left half of my presentation. I didn't get freaked out about it, I just jumped on Tommy's laptop and did the presentation out of my Dropbox account. But that was nothing compared to what Kristofer Joseph was able to pull off at September's PhoneGap Paris meetup. Kris was doing some live coding of Topcoat while presenting to a large Parisian crowd. Now that doesn't sound too bad but here is the picture: Now you have to look at the top right hand corner of the picture to see Kris leaning over the railing on the second floor of this busy bar in Paris. He's presenting to the crowd down below while holding a hand mic, while typing on his computer, while a bunch of people sing happy birthday behind him. Yup, I will never complain about a tough presentation setup ever again. |
But then some time passed and I read an interview with Powers and Gaiman where they agreed that it was an odd co-incidence that the books seemed similar but there was no copying going on by either party so I read it again and loved it! This is actually the third time I've read the book as it was the October book in my book club and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it once again. The book centers on an ex-con named Shadow. He gets out of jail a few days early in order to attend his wife's funeral. Rudderless after the loss of his wife he takes a job for Mr. Wednesday an embodiment of the Norse god Odin. While on the job Shadow criss crosses America with Mr. Wednesday trying to recruit the old gods, the ones immigrants brought to America, in a war against the new gods of America, the Internet, Fame, TV, etc. It is a pretty great treaties on the conflict between spiritual beliefs and the new gods of technology. It does a good job of exploring the question of whether man creates gods or gods create men. Also, it contains quotes from one of my favourite poems, The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats. |
Monday, October 7, 2013
My PhoneGap Day US Talk on Speech Recognition
Back in July I went out to Portland to talk at PhoneGap Day US. The video has just become available so I figured I would post it up here. The talk I did at PhoneGap Day EU is very similar to this one with a bit of updated information and mostly new jokes.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Books I've Read This Week
The closest comparable I can find for this book is the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher which is a good thing as that is a really fun series. Anyway, PC Peter Grant is just finishing his probationary period and is hoping to become a detective but after standing guard at a grisley murder scene he discovers that he can talk to ghosts. This leads to Peter being assigned to a special division of the London Metro Police that deals with super natural crime. I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. |
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